Latvia: Samanta Tina

OK, I thought I'd been clear when we covered Israel but clearly Latvia did not get the "No Leotards" memo. We'll forgive Samanta here though because of the inclusion of the visors. The visors take me back to school trips to Thorpe Park where we spent all our pocket money on visors and hackysacks. Good times! In a world where visors are part of our protection against this seemingly endless pandemic, it is comforting to be taken back to a time of banana sandwiches, grazed knees, bouncy balls and hypothesising about who will vomit on the rollercoaster. Power to the visors!

To supplement the visors, the Head of Props has also thrown in potatoes, brocolli, irons, window cleaner, weights and toy pushchairs. A job well done, Mr prop man! And to top it off we have Samanta devouring a chocolate cake. Everything is better with chocolate cake.

While potatoes and brocolli are all good, what separates Eurovision from Tescos is the music and sure enough Latvia have done a song. And this one is largely uninspiring. It has a little bit of "wub wub wub" in there but nothing that is likely to reignite our 2010 love for all things Skrillex. 

But "Still Breathing" is irrelevant because it's 2021 now.....

Apparently this song has upset some of the more misogynistic, homophobic elements of Latvian society. I'm not sure what genre of music they prefer but this is the kind of song I can walk down the street with my headphones on thinking "Yes, despite my cishet maleness, I'm a queen and the world better step back cause I'm coming through!".

It is much better than last year and I hope it makes it through to the final. I'm not sure I get the bunny/moose/other ear thing but it seems fun. Lasers and triangles are also a favourite of mine but ideally there'd be a bit more interesting geometry. In fact, the lasers are reminiscent of Jean-Michel Jarre's laser harp and JMJ would win Eurovision every day of the week. Samanta won't win Eurovision but she is a welcome addition to the running order.